This is about the most exciting news ever, picture quality regardless..... Can't wait to hear about the new scenes and how long they actually are. I imagine it'll be a very long time before a 'restoration' is seen!

Die Nibelungen seems to get ever longer & longer. I suppose in 2010 they'll be showing a twelve-hour version.....

Now don't get me wrong, I like METROPOLIS as much as the next person. I saw the last restoration at least a year before KINO released it and I was first in line to buy the DVD, but I've noticed that the more the film is returned to it's orginal length the sillier the plot gets.
I'm wondering if the latest discovery will make even sillier or clear up some things. Or both.

If you read English language news report you will find incomplete information.

The film is going to be exhibited in more than an hour from now and I'm about to leave to see it.

Please post what you saw in detail!

I just came from the exhibition an hour ago, and except for my wife and one or two other people, who spoke spoke English, everybody in that auditorium spoke Spanish.

In total there are 23 minutes of the film that were recovered. You will see everything on video shortly because there were a lot of cameras (video and photo) everywhere.

There are bits here and there (you can say, this take is in the actual print, this one is not), but the exhibition consisted of only 4 sequences.

The first sequence is the one in which the worker with whom Frederer exchanges clothes gets into his car and gets lost in Yoshiwara, the street of sin.

The second one is brief and it shows a newspaper stand in which also appears the guy who have to follow Frederer on orders from his father.

The third one is the one in which the false Maria is introduced in Yoshiwara. Along with alternate takes and the appearance of a preacher just before the introduction of the seven capital sins. This scene features titles in Spanish (like the entire print) reportedly written by director Leopoldo Torres Ríos, and Paula Félix-Didier (of the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken) said that he gave a tango lyric kind of feel to them.

The last sequence was the longest: it includes the complete scenes of Frederer meeting with the real Maria and trying to rescue the children, including takes that are present in the actual prints plus others that are not. You can see more of the drowning, the actual ceiling of Metropolis where the water enters, intertitles in Spanish, and the children locked on bars trying to escape the flood until Frederer manage to release it and the kids began to escape.

It was really a miracle to be in that audience that featured almost only journalists!!!!!

The copyright of the film belongs to the F-W-Murnau-Stitfung and for that reason now German and the Buenos Aires city will have to negotiate a purchase of a copy the print, since they are not going to sell it.

The reason why this film survived is because the film was released by a company called "Cinematográfica Terra", owned by Adolfo Wilson, that brought to Argentina the complete version of the film, and not the edited version distributed by Paramount in the United States. The intertitles are all in Spanish and reportedly they were translated or adapted by Leopoldo Torres Ríos in a tango mood (he was also a lyricist).

A print of the film was purchased by film historian and critic Manuel Peña Rodríguez and, in the seventies, the 35mm nitrate print was reduced to 16mm for preservation in the seventies after bein purchased, along with the entire Peña Rodríguez collection by a State institution. In 1992, the collection was donated to the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken, and for years they tried in vain to have people in Germany to know about this version. They didn't care until film historian and collector Fernando Martín Peña, called Luciano Berratúa in Spain after looking for his phone in a guide. He did see the images and he himself contacted Ennos Patalas who finally gave the OK.

Argentina have a long tradition of Cine Clubs that goes back to 1929. So... I guess many people will have to learn Spanish.

rollot24 wrote:Now don't get me wrong, I like METROPOLIS as much as the next person. I saw the last restoration at least a year before KINO released it and I was first in line to buy the DVD, but I've noticed that the more the film is returned to it's orginal length the sillier the plot gets.

I agree entirely. I cannot get really excited about the rediscovered scenes, either. I fear we have seen all that is great about METROPOLIS. Lang made a visually stunning and unique film from his wife's convoluted script. No number of new scenes will be able to make sense of the garbled plot or remedy the narrative weaknesses. The merit of this film is in the sets, the cinematography and the sheer daring of its scale and I don't think any scenes that display these qualities ever ended up on the cutting room floor.
The only thing I look forward to in the upcoming "complete" version is the increased screentime for Brigitte Helm and Fritz Rasp.

rollot24 wrote:Now don't get me wrong, I like METROPOLIS as much as the next person. I saw the last restoration at least a year before KINO released it and I was first in line to buy the DVD, but I've noticed that the more the film is returned to it's orginal length the sillier the plot gets.

I agree entirely. I cannot get really excited about the rediscovered scenes, either. I fear we have seen all that is great about METROPOLIS. Lang made a visually stunning and unique film from his wife's convoluted script. No number of new scenes will be able to make sense of the garbled plot or remedy the narrative weaknesses. The merit of this film is in the sets, the cinematography and the sheer daring of its scale and I don't think any scenes that display these qualities ever ended up on the cutting room floor.The only thing I look forward to in the upcoming "complete" version is the increased screentime for Brigitte Helm and Fritz Rasp.

I totally disagree with the obvious ignorance exhibited here... which is the same one that allow the print to be dormant in shelf. The scenes does improve everything and does make the story more comprehensible.

From the photos posted (the big stone face behind the curtains), the Hel subplot is included.

According to what has been posted on other groups (from people who have seen the print), there is still about 5 minutes of footage missing, due to nitrate deterioration of the 35mm before it was copied (which would mean this print contains about 30 minutes of newly discovered scenes).

FrankFay wrote:And lets not forget: before this happened the big news was the rediscovery of Bardleys the Magnificent! I'm still waiting for that one.

Some of the big discoveries in the past few years have beenBEYOND THE ROCKSthe lavendars for KING KONGBARDLEYSthe new Jean Harlowe footagethe supposed Dracula negativesthe new METROPOLIS footage

Is there any I didn't list?

The second half of A MODERN MUSKETEER (which was discovered back in 1998 but first seen in the U.S. last September at the Iola Keaton Celebration). Then there's the mysterious alternate cut of a "significant silent Keaton Feature" that is promised for the Muskegon Festival this year.

And although they were never lost films, there were notable 35mm reprints of the extremely-hard-to-find-but-excellent-films BEGGARS OF LIFE and CHICAGO.

Rodney Sauer
The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
www.mont-alto.com"Let the Music do the Talking!"

FrankFay wrote:And lets not forget: before this happened the big news was the rediscovery of Bardleys the Magnificent! I'm still waiting for that one.

Some of the big discoveries in the past few years have beenBEYOND THE ROCKSthe lavendars for KING KONGBARDLEYSthe new Jean Harlowe footagethe supposed Dracula negativesthe new METROPOLIS footage

Is there any I didn't list?

The second half of A MODERN MUSKETEER (which was discovered back in 1998 but first seen in the U.S. last September at the Iola Keaton Celebration). Then there's the mysterious alternate cut of a "significant silent Keaton Feature" that is promised for the Muskegon Festival this year.

And although they were never lost films, there were notable 35mm reprints of the extremely-hard-to-find-but-excellent-films BEGGARS OF LIFE and CHICAGO.

and, while not silent, the new footage for A Night at the Opera and Baby Face